Leading and emerging trends in the air conditioning market
The market for technology in the HVAC market is rapidly ever-changing. Developments for future technology focus on convenience and the user experience. Although the evolution of these products in HVAC may be in their infancy, most organizations are predicting that user experience will define the industry for years to come. The emphasis on convenience is creating increased demand for technology that may not even exist yet.
Do you have uncomfortable hot or cold rooms in your house, dusty or musty air that aggravates allergies, or high utility bills that leave something to be desired month after month? The bad news: You may have leaky ducts.
The good news: Aeroseal’s duct work sealing technology has helped improve home comfort, overall air quality, and energy savings in homes across the country. When 30 cents of every $1 spent on heating/cooling leaks before making it to your living space, properly sealed ducts make a big difference in savings.
We all know about how stack effect works in homes, but during presentations, I’m always surprised by how many hands are raised in response to the question: “How many of you think you can make a house too tight and cause problems with indoor air quality?” Generally, at least three-quarters of the room raises their hands. Really? My colleague Joe Kuonen says that getting a house so tight that you need to ventilate is a feat worth celebrating. “Now, we can get fresh air from a place we can trust,” he says. Where do most of our homes get their fresh air? From places we cannot trust, like crawl spaces.
If you’re like most homeowners – dusting is not one of your favorite chores (are any chores fun?). We all like to give it the old “college try” and hit our tabletops, television, and maybe even our picture frames on a weekly basis. But, take a minute right now — look up at your return grilles then look down at your supply grilles. Yuck, right? Don’t feel bad – lots of people have the same dusty, grimy register covers in their homes. So why is this forgotten area of your housekeeping so important?
Finally, we can pack away our coats, gloves and winter boots and pull out our baseball hats, shorts, and tee shirts – spring is here!! If you’re like most homeowners you have a laundry list of things you want to accomplish this season: spring clean your home, finish those pesky projects you’ve put off all winter, get your lawn ready for the neighborhood barbecue, and much more. But don’t forget, spring is also the perfect time to focus on the quality of your indoor air. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the air in the typical home is up to five times dirtier than the air outdoors. Keeping your air as clean as possible helps to reduce asthma and allergy symptoms and improve your overall health.
Here are a few simple tips to improve the air quality in your home this spring:
Do your spring cleaning – pay particular attention to those areas we tend to skip during our normal cleaning. Dust the heat registers and return vents in each room, as well as ceiling fans. Vacuum upholstery and drapes. When dusting, use a damp or treated cloth to avoid kicking up dust particles and dust mites while you work. Lookout for staining, wet spots or visible water drips so that any issues are caught and dealt with immediately.
Remove your shoes when you enter your home. The soles of your shoes pick up all sorts of dirt and toxins from outside and track them through your home.
Check your HVAC air filter and replace it if dirty. A clean air filter protects your system from dust buildup.
Wash your bedding in hot water every week, and vacuum your mattress to remove highly allergenic dust mite debris.
Control clutter in your home to reduce the amount of dust and allergens in your air.
Replace your kitchen sponges every week, or use washable cloths instead. Sponges may have as many as 100,000 bacteria per square inch.
Bring Mother Nature inside. Plants add oxygen into your home while actively working to reduce Carbon Dioxide levels to improve your air quality.
Call your trusted home performance trained contractor today to schedule a spring HVAC maintenance appointment.
Read these tips on how to choose a contractor and protect your money.
Homeowners should be very careful before choosing a heating and cooling contractor for their home. There are huge differences in quality and professionalism throughout the industry. The “best” contractors will typically be members of one or more professional contractor associations. You should be looking for contractors who are well-educated and certified in three particular areas:
Only if you believe that a “leaky home” can waste money
And you should! Whether you are heating or cooling your home, leaky homes can waste your hard-earned dollars!
The best way to evaluate your home is to have it professionally tested. Home energy assessments, home energy audits and home energy check-ups are all pretty much the same thing. The important element is to choose the right type of professional contractor to perform any one of these evaluations of your home.
As explained in this video from the U.S. Department of Energy, a home energy checkup is a series of tests and inspections to help determine how your home can be more efficient. Finding the source of inefficiencies in the home will help you understand how you could be wasting money. It is common to find problems in most homes like:
insulation
trap doors/access doors to attics
lighting
appliances
dirty filters
leaky duct work
airflow and sources of air leakage in the home
The good news is that all of these problems areas can be fixed! Many times, homeowners are tricked into purchasing new heating or cooling systems that can cost thousands of dollars. But it is quite common that a new system is not what the homeowner needs. What’s worse is that the new system will not operate as efficiently as expected because the true source of inefficiencies in the home have not been addressed. It is common that homeowners can save more money in the long run by doing a little bit of investigative work on the front end.
So why wait until those energy bills start adding up?
This last weekend, Aeroseal duct sealing was featured on national television (again).
Check out this clip from Hometime for a great explanation of how the procedure works and how you could see improvements to indoor air quality, dust, consistent comfort and heating expenses.
I encourage everyone to ask your local heating and cooling contractor if they can provide this service. If they can’t, then make sure to find out who can!
Don’t let anyone tell you that hand sealing the duct system is “just as good” as sealing them from the inside.
If you are in BARRON HEATING’s service area, check out this page for more great information and how you can take advantage of this innovative opportunity: http://www.barronheating.com/aeroseal/
